Methods of manufacturing garments

ABSTRACT

The invention provides a method of manufacturing garments or garment parts from a continuous web comprising feeding the web to an apparatus in which a tuck is formed in the web within the area from which the garment or garment part is to be formed, the tuck is secured at at least one location within the area to hold the tuck in place, the web is severed around the outline of the required garment part and the tuck is opened away from the location where it is secured thereby forming a dart or pleat in the garment part.

United States Patet Brown [451 Oct. 3, 1972 [54] METHODS OF MANUFACTURING GARMENTS [72] Inventor: Philip Brown, Wembley, England [73] Assignee: Mintray Limited, London, England [22] Filed: Jan. 8, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 104,950

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Jan. 3, 1970 Great Britain ..1,64l/70 [52] US. Cl. ..2/243 R [51] Int. Cl. ..A41d 27/00 [58] Field of Search "2/243 R [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,490,077 1/1970 Brown ..2/243 R 3,500,479 3/1970 Pierron ..2/243 R 3,574,238 4/1971 McCurry ..2/243 R X 3,585,641 6/1971 Pierron ..2/243 R X 3,156,927 11/1964 Grimm et a1 ..2/243 R Primary Examiner-Alfred R. Guest Attorney-Mawhinney & Mawhinney 5 7] ABSTRACT The invention provides a method of manufacturing garments or garment parts from a continuous web comprising feeding the web to an apparatus in which a tuck is formed in the web within the area from which the garment or garment part is to be formed, the tuck is secured at at least one location within the area to hold the tuck in place, the web is severed around the outline of the required garment part and the tuck is opened away from the location where it is secured thereby forming a dart or pleat in the garment part.

7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 1 METHODS OF MANUFACTURING GARMENTS This invention relates to methods of manufacturing garments or garment parts.

The invention provides a method of manufacturing garments or garment parts from a continuous web comprising feeding the web to an apparatus in which a tuck is formed in the web within the area from which the garment or garment part is to be formed, the tuck is secured at at least one location within the area to hold the tuck in place, the web is severed around the outline of the required garment part and the tuck is opened away from the location where it is secured thereby forming a dart or pleat in the garment part.

The tuck may be secured at two or more locations within the outline of the garment part.

Two or more tucks may be formed in the web within the area of the garment part, each tuck being secured at one or more locations within said area.

Two oppositely facing tucks may be formed in the web to form a box pleat.

Preferably the tucks extend longitudinally along the web.

Adhesive may be applied to the web prior to the formation of the tuck at the location where the tuck is required to be adhered.

The invention is applicable to the manufacture of a garment having a fore part and a rear part in which case the first-mentioned web in which the tuck is formed is fed into superimposed relationship with a second web and is adhered thereto along the seamlines of the garment so that the tuck is held in place at the seamlines after which the two superimposed webs are cut around the outline of the required garment.

In the case where the fore part and back part of the garment differ the web for one of the parts may be severed at the locations where it differs from the other part prior to superimposition of the webs.

Elastic or elastic thread may be secured to the garment or garment part at appropriate locations eg. the neck, arm or sleeve openings or waist of the garment.

The following is a description of some specific embodiments of the invention reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates the manufacture of a dress;

FIG. 2 illustrates a modified sleeve form for the dress of FIG. 1;

F IG. 3 illustrates the manufacture of a blouse; and

FIG. 4 illustrates the manufacture of a bra.

The apparatus used is similar to that described in my British Pat. No. 1,1 14,583 with suitable modifications to enable the apparatus to carry out the operations indicated.

Referring firstly to FIG. 1 of the drawings there is illustrated the manufacture of a womans dress. A fore part 5 of a dress is formed from a web of material such as paper or any woven, knitted or non-woven fabric. Adhesive is printed at one station in the apparatus on the web of material 10 along seamlines 11 which delineate the fore part of the dress extending across the web 10. Simultaneously with the printing of adhesive 11 a V-neck 12 is cut in the web between the seamlines 11 of the shoulders.

Simultaneously with the printing of adhesive lines 11 and cutting of the V-neck l2 converging adhesive lines 13 are printed at locations to one side of and below the fore part of the dress delineating the inner halves 6 of two sleeves and the upper ends of the sleeve halves are simultaneously cut convexly as indicated at 15.

The web then passes to another station in the apparatus where a plough device forms a tuck 16 by double folding the web as indicated at 16 along the web through the location of the bust of the garment.

The web then passes to a third station where a second web 17 of paper from which the back parts of the garment are to be formed is superimposed on the web 10 and is adhered by pressing to the web 10 along the adhesive lines 11 and 13. The tuck 16 is thus secured in place at the seamlines. The resulting composite web is then cut around the outline 18 of the back part of the garment which corresponds exactly tothe front part of the garment except at the location of the neck where the front part of the garment has already been cut. The adhered front and rear parts of the garment then fall free of the web. The second web 17 also provides two further sleeve halves 7 from the parts of the web superimposed over the sleeve halves in the lower web 10. The composite web is severed round the outlines 19 which differ from the outlines of the lower sleeve webs in that the upper ends of the sleeves are convex as indicated at 20. The resulting adhered sleeves then fall from the composite web. It will be appreciated that each sleeve thus formed has its upper end a convex and a concave part so that the sleeve can be set into the sleeve aperture in the main body of the garment. The upper end of the sleeve is adhered to the sleeve aperture by adhesive in a separate operation.

After the main body of the garment has been separated from the superimposed webs the part of the tuck 16 in the fore part of the garment between the adhered seamlines is opened up providing a fullness in the fore part of the garment with darts leading to the seamlines of the garment.

It will be appreciated that the tuck 16 may be formed in the web 10 prior to the printing of the adhesive lines 11 and 13.

FIG. 2 shows an alternative single sleeve half shape 8 which can be cut from the two webs instead of the two differently shaped sleeve halves band 7 shown in FIG. 1.

Referring now to FIG. 3 of the drawings there is illustrated a method of manufacture of a blouse or shirt which is essentially similar to that of the dress described above. In this case however the fore part of the shirt is formed from two side by side webs 30, 31 the overlapping edges of which are folded to provide a double thickness as indicated at 32. Also the blouses or shirts are formed along the length of the webs. In this case the neck opening in the fore part of the blouse or shirt is semi-circular as indicated at 33 and in addition to cutting the neck opening at the first station in the apparatus button hole cuts are formed in the superimposed folded parts 32 as indicated at 34. Simultaneously with the cutting adhesive is applied along the seamlines indicated at 35. After the cutting and adhering operations the webs 30, 31 pass to the second station in the apparatus and are each formed with a longitudinal tuck 36 by double folding of the web the tuck extending through the shoulder seamlines. At a third station further web 37 is superimposed on the side by side webs and pressed thereto so that the webs are adhered together by the lines of adhesive 35 and then the resulting composite web is cut around the outline 38 of the back of the shirt and the resulting shirt body falls away from the composite web. Sleeves can be formed in the same manner as that described with reference to FIGS. 1 or 2 of the drawings for the shirt which are attached afterwards and cuffs and neckbands and/or collars can also be attached afterwards by pressure sensitive adhesive.

It will be appreciated that tucks 36 could be formed in the web 37 instead of or as well as the tucks in the webs 30, 31.

Also the fore part of the garment could be formed from a single web instead of the two webs 30, 31. In this case the fore part may be cut into two parts in a subsequent operation or a short cut may be formedin the fore part extending downwardly from the neck opening to enable the neck opening to be widened when the garment is put on or taken off.

Adhesive can also be applied to the web or webs in which tucks are formed where the waist of the garment is located prior to forming of the tucks so that the tucks when formed are held in place at the waist. Thus when the tucks above and below the waist are unfolded fullness is formed in the garment above and below the waist.

Referring now to FIG. 4 of the drawings there is illustrated a method of manufacture of a bra, a bikini top or dress top. The garment is formed from a single web of material 40. The web is passed to a first station in an apparatus where two lines of adhesive 41 are printed across the center of the web 40 towards the ends of the intended garment part and two further lines of adhesive 42 are printed across the center of the web 40 at the middle of the intended garment part. The web is then passed to devices which form two double folds or tucks 43 along the web so that parts of the web originally on either side of the lines 41 and 42 are superimposed on the'lines and adhered thereto. The web 40 with the folds is then passed to a further station where it is severed around the outline 44 of the required garment and the folded parts of the garment between each adjacent pair of adhered lines 41 and 42 are unfolded to form the cups as indicated at 45. Holding straps are then adhered separately.

The lines 41 and 42 may instead of being straight be curved or chevron shaped to achieve the required shape of cup.

It will be appreciated that many modifications may be made to the above methods without departing from the scope of the invention. For example instead of single tucks in the web or webs several tucks may be formed and secured in the web or webs either side by side or superimposed on one another to provide the required fullness and shape in the garment part. Also two oppositely facing tucks can be formed in the front or back part of a garment to form a box pleat. Further the tucks described above can be adhered at a location or locations intermediate of the length of the tuck to provide fullness in the garment on either side of the location where the tuck is adhered.

In the case where the garment has a fore or rear body part with an opening or slit to permit the garment to be put on or a pocket or other opening one or both edge portions of the opening or slit may have a strip of pressure sensitive adhesive for releasably adhering to the other edge portion. The adhesive should be sufficiently strong and the strip should be of sufficient width to resist release clue to normal tensions in the garment whilst releasing when one side of the opening is pulled away from the other side in a direction transverse to a plane containing the part of the garment in which the opening is formed.

The neck, arm or sleeve openings or waists of any of the garments referred to above can be elasticated by adhering a secured elastic or elastic thread under tension to the openings or waist.

The garments described above may also be decorated by adhering cut patterns or broderie anglais to the web from which the garment is formed or smocking can be formed on the garment by printing staggered lines of dots on the web and forming the web into pleats which are secured in place by the adhesive.

The methods described above can also be applied to the manufacture of trousers, shorts, underwear footwear and any other garments requiring shaping by darts or pleats.

We claim:

1. A method of manufacturing garment parts from a continuous web comprising a. applying adhesive to the web along lines which correspond to seamlines of the required finished garment part;

b. forming at least one tuck in the web which passes across a line of said adhesive;

0. securing said tuck in place where it passes across the line of adhesive; and

d. severing the garment part from the web around the required outline including severing the web along the seamline delineated by said lines of adhesive.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein a plurality of tucks are formed in the garment part which pass across said lines of adhesive and said tucks are secured in place where they pass across the lines of adhesive.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein additional adhesive is applied to the web within the outline of the required garment and within the length of the tuck to be formed in the garment part, the tuck is folded in the garment part and is secured in place both at the location where the tuck passes across said line of adhesive and across the additional adhesive.

4. A method as claimed in 1 wherein the tuck is formed extending between opposed lines of adhesive on either side of the eventual garment part and the tuck is secured in place at both ends thereof where it intersects said lines of adhesive.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the garment part is the fore part of a dress and the tuck is formed across the fore part in the region of the bust.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the garment part is the fore part of a shirt or blouse and two tucks are formed extending between each seamline along a shoulder of the fore part to the bottom hem of the fore part, and said tucks are secured in place by adhesive applied along the seamlines at the shoulders.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the web carrying the garment part is superimposed with a second web, is adhered to the second web along said lines of adhesive and the two webs are severed along the required outline of the garment.

UNITED STATES PATENT @FFEQE QERTEFICATE or QQRREMWN Patent N 3,694, Dated 3 lnventor(s) PHILIP BROWN It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

In the Heading of the Patent the priority date "January 3, 1970" should read -January 13, l970-.

Signed and sealed this 6th day of March 1973.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. ROBERT GOTTSCHALK Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents FORM PO-OSO (10-69) USCOMM-DC 60376-P69 r Us GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1969 o3se-334 

1. A method of manufacturIng garment parts from a continuous web comprising a. applying adhesive to the web along lines which correspond to seamlines of the required finished garment part; b. forming at least one tuck in the web which passes across a line of said adhesive; c. securing said tuck in place where it passes across the line of adhesive; and d. severing the garment part from the web around the required outline including severing the web along the seamline delineated by said lines of adhesive.
 2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein a plurality of tucks are formed in the garment part which pass across said lines of adhesive and said tucks are secured in place where they pass across the lines of adhesive.
 3. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein additional adhesive is applied to the web within the outline of the required garment and within the length of the tuck to be formed in the garment part, the tuck is folded in the garment part and is secured in place both at the location where the tuck passes across said line of adhesive and across the additional adhesive.
 4. A method as claimed in 1 wherein the tuck is formed extending between opposed lines of adhesive on either side of the eventual garment part and the tuck is secured in place at both ends thereof where it intersects said lines of adhesive.
 5. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the garment part is the fore part of a dress and the tuck is formed across the fore part in the region of the bust.
 6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the garment part is the fore part of a shirt or blouse and two tucks are formed extending between each seamline along a shoulder of the fore part to the bottom hem of the fore part, and said tucks are secured in place by adhesive applied along the seamlines at the shoulders.
 7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the web carrying the garment part is superimposed with a second web, is adhered to the second web along said lines of adhesive and the two webs are severed along the required outline of the garment. 